Shuttle Launch

I have a love for the Space Program. When I taught Science we always ending the year with a huge launching of homemade rocket. As a kid I was obsessed with rocketry. In a world were we seem to always find money for wars we also need to spend to expand man's knowledge of space. Who knows where the solutions to our problems will come from. My Dad told me once how the Moon landing was one of the few things in human history that had the transcendent power to change the way we thought about life on this planet and the other hairless apes we share it with. It was something everyone could share. Could a mission to Mars or a permanent colony on the Moon have such power to unite us rather than divide us? I mention this since this year there have been a good deal of Shuttle launches. In fact, on Friday NASA is doing TWO launches about 23 hours apart. I feel like I am living in a time when going to space is becoming almost routine (which of course is wrong - space travel is anything but routine) and I like that feeling. Sounds like we finally are getting our mojo working to gear up to something else just as big as the Moon landing. I just hope I see it in my lifetime.